Who Wore it Best? #TheDress Inspires Pop-Up Social Marketing

What did you see? White and gold, or blue and black? Over the weekend, the internet exploded with debate and controversy over a dress. The curious case was that of a photograph of a dress, which appeared to have two entirely different color palettes to different viewers. When the topic came up while I was out on Thursday night, I clearly saw #TheDress as black and blue, while a few of my friends only saw white and gold. No matter what colors you saw, brands were seeing green, and quickly jumped on social media to attempt to cash in.

As always with real-time marketing and social media, there were plenty of targets missed. However, many marketers managed to stay #OnBrand and delight their followers with humorous moments in the midst of sometimes heated debates. Here's a roundup of a few of my personal favorites:

Denny's plays its usual card of a post-ironic weirdism, and to huge effect. Note that it didn't even need to use the hashtag to generate significant engagement on this tweet — its fan base already loves it.

*stops furiously scribbling amidst dozens of coffee cups* there is no dress. it is not the dress that changes colors, it is only yourself.

Whether you're on team #BlueAndBlack or #WhiteAndGold, it's clear that #TheDress created some buzz, which can power community engagement with your social media fans. It's important to be conscientious with events like this, as you simply must have something interesting to say rather than shoehorning your brand into an event. That's the key, and what gave Pizza Hut 21,000 retweets when some other (even very major) brands had less than 10.